Israel: End of Assad would be 'blessing'

Ehud Barak, Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, speaks during a plenary session at the World Policy Conference at the Hofburg palace in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

VIENNA (AP) —
Israel's defense minister urged the world on Sunday to apply
"paralyzing" sanctions on Iran's energy sector and leadership, but
didn't comment about whether his country is ready to strike Tehran to
cripple its alleged efforts to make nuclear arms.

Ehud Barak also
described the Arab Spring that has swept regional despots from power in
the Mideast and Africa as an "extremely moving" manifestation of mass
striving for democracy, and he predicted that Syrian President Bashar
Assad would be toppled within weeks.

Barak spoke on the final day
of the three-day World Policy Conference in Vienna, which also showed
that relations between Turkey and Israel remain strained following last
year's Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that killed eight Turkish
citizens and a Turkish-American.

The annual conference aims to
bring together policy makers from different sectors to debate some of
the world's more pressing concerns and attempt to advance solutions.

Regarding
Assad's clique, Barak said during a question-and-answer session at the
conference, "The falling down of this family is a blessing for the
Middle East."

He said he expects Syria's relatively secular
society to remain that way in any post-Assad scenario. At the same time,
Barak said the Mideast turmoil over the short term could result in more
influence for Islamic radicals, which would be "quite disturbing for
the region."

The Arab region's democratic upheavals and Iran are
among Israel's most pressing security concerns. The Jewish state is
particularly keen to preserve an alliance with Egypt that is a
cornerstone of Mideast stability, but relations between the two
countries have become strained since a popular uprising toppled Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak in February.

The storming of Israel's
Cairo embassy in September and a strong showing by Islamist parties in
Egypt's elections have fueled fears in Israel about future ties between
the two countries.

Israel and Egypt signed a U.S.-brokered peace
treaty in 1979, the first between Israel and an Arab state. The
agreement has allowed Israel to divert resources to its volatile fronts
with Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Egypt has benefited by
receiving billions of dollars in U.S. military aid.

Iran's nuclear progress — and fears that it is secretly working on atomic arms — is perhaps an even greater worry.

Israeli
officials have recently toned down increasingly strident warnings that
their country may be planning to strike at Iran's nuclear facilities in
an attempt to cripple a program that can be used both for civilian and
military purposes. But they say force remains an option, if diplomacy
fails to end Tehran's nuclear defiance.

On Sunday, Barak avoided
mentioning the military option, telling the meeting he thinks there
still is "time for urgent, coherent, paralyzing sanctions" on Iran's
leadership and its energy sector, effectively throttling exports and
imports of oil and related products by Tehran.

Adding to Iran's
burden of already existing U.N. and national sanctions, the U.S. and the
European Community have been tightening the net of economic punishments
targeting Tehran in recent weeks.

The European Union recently
imposed sanctions on nearly 150 Iranian companies and dozens of
individuals and is examining the feasibility of additional measures that
could include restrictions on oil imports and gasoline exports to and
from Iran.

Tehran denies seeking nuclear arms. But reflecting
regional concerns, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal recently warned that his
country could someday consider making its own atomic weapons, if stuck
between nuclear arsenals in Iran and Israel.

Israel does not comment on the widely held presumption that it has such weapons, and Barak kept to that practice Sunday.

But
he warned that an Iran with nuclear weapons "will start the countdown
toward a terrible vision:" other nations in the region — and radicals
like Hamas in Palestine or Hezbollah in Lebanon — acquiring their own
arsenals.

Barak and Turkish President Abdullah Gul were the most
prominent guests at the conference and they appeared to steer clear of
each other, reflecting tensions between their nations.

Turkish media reported that Gul stayed away from the group photo session before the conference to avoid Barak.

In
response, Barak walked out as Gul prepared to make his speech on
Friday. Gul then boycotted the dinner given by Austrian president to
avoid Barak again and instead he attended prayers at a mosque in Vienna.